The Freelance Mum: A flexible career guide for better work-life balance. Annie Ridout

meeting online and in person, and telling about your services, so get their email address and ask if it’s OK to add them to your mailing list. This is a valuable asset for any company: being able to land directly in people’s inboxes, rather than having to hope they’ll see your post on social media. Having a box pop up on your website asking people to subscribe is a simple way to get sign-ups. There’s more later on about growing your mailing list, and when and how to contact your subscribers. But in the initial stages, just get people signed up whenever you can (with their permission).

       When am I going to work?

      Once you have grown your freelance career and have paying clients, you’ll be able to decide whether you’d like to commit to paying for childcare for your children. This will vary from parent to parent. But when you’re starting up, you’ll need to be prepared to work in the evenings, once the kids are in bed and when they’re napping (kids’ sleep routines are covered in Chapter 3). This also extends to weekends, if you can enlist a partner or grandparents who are willing to help out. Remember, you’re right at the start of this journey. It’s going to be hard work but it will be worth it when the money’s streaming in and you have the option to outsource some of the childcare. Chapter 4 will go into more detail about the childcare options available.

       Don’t burn out

      While it’s important to commit lots of time and energy to your freelance work, you will need to practise self-care, too. It’s very tiring being a mum, it’s very tiring working alongside motherhood, it’s very tiring setting up as a freelancer. But you might find it beneficial to re-frame what you consider a ‘break’ to be. For instance, I was invited to go on a mum and baby retreat in Hampshire recently. It was two days and a night of yoga, healthy food, massages and inspiring activities. It sounded heavenly, but my husband couldn’t take two days off work, and it landed on the two half-days my son was with the childminder so I’d have had to still pay her even if he came with me. Someone needed to collect my daughter from preschool. I had a book to write. So I said no.

      However, writing a book while continuing to run The Early Hour, write freelance articles and produce commercial copy takes up a lot of my energy. And as soon as I finish work, I’m on mum duty. I don’t get a break until they’re in bed. And then I open my laptop and work. So really, I don’t stop until I go to sleep. But what I’ve found is that stealing tiny pockets of time for myself makes it all bearable. For instance, I hop in a really hot bath five minutes before the kids to soak alone before adding cold water and pulling them in with me. I go for a 10-minute run in the morning. Once I’ve finished work in the evening, I read a novel for five minutes before lights out. This is my ‘me-time’. I’d love to have the massages and weekend spa retreats but it’s just not doable so I find time for myself in smaller, more manageable ways.

      BBC documentary presenter Cherry Healey is a single mother to her two kids, aged eight and four. She works three or four days a week, depending on where and what she’s filming, and they spend the weekend as a family. ‘What I really like is a Saturday with no plans,’ she says. ‘I’ll go out on a Friday after work if I’ve already missed kids’ bedtimes, and I’ll go for dinner, with my boyfriend, or go dancing. But Saturdays are about going to the park, iPads, lolling about. Doing the laundry. We very rarely go away for the weekend. Lazy weekends at home are important for my mental health. Sometimes I feel I should be doing more with the kids but one thing I’ve learned is that it’s the times I make loads of effort that they end up crying because I didn’t get them something from the shop. Keep it simple, and local.’